SAN FRANCISCO, REAL ESTATE, AND MORE

Chronicle Restaurant Critic and Editor at Large Michael Bauer just gave Pearl, a new restaurant in the Richmond District, a wonderful review. The longtime food critic says the best neighborhood restaurants become the beacon that gives the neighborhood its identity, and with its good food, comfortable surroundings, and service that is understated but efficient, Pearl is a shining example.

The writer explains that it took years, but Jack Murphy, who made Pizzetta 211 a destination pizza restaurant in the Outer Richmond, has expanded. Murphy’s new restaurant, Pearl, is the type of refined neighborhood place that used to open nearly weekly in San Francisco and enriched the dining scene. But that has recently been lost in the guise of quick-casual

Whatever it is, it opened last Thursday, and it is something to behold. Described on its website as a “sprawling sanctuary of confectionary bliss,” the experiential museum debuted in New York and Los Angeles before arriving in San Francisco.

Like the the Museum of Ice Cream, it’s perfect for whimsical exploration, and instagram. Hoodline explains that Candytopia features seven rooms, one of the most notable being its art gallery. There, some of pop culture’s most recognizable faces — Snoop Dogg, Cardi B, and Prince among them — are comprised entirely of jelly beans, gummy bears, red vines, rock candy, sprinkles and jawbreakers.

In other rooms, guests will have the opportunity to be blasted by rainbow confetti that shoots out of a pig’s rear,

San Francisco Opera is once again hosting Opera in the Park, this year in celebration of the opening of its 96th season. The annual free concert has been held in Golden Gate Park since 1971, and it happens this Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday, starting at 2 PM both days, The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival will present its 2018 Free Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Lastly, the 2nd Annual Autumn Moon Festival will take place on Saturday, on Clement Street between 5th and 8th Avenues, from 11 AM to 3:30 PM.

On the “Homes for Sale in San Francisco” front, here’s our report for this week, 9/2/18 – 9/8/18

Painting Is My Everything is really something very different, and the exhibition opens tomorrow and runs through December 30 at the Asian Art Museum. Here’s how the museum describes the works on display:

With precise skill and bold artistic vision, the 17 contemporary artists included in this exhibition, many of them women, employ a centuries-old regional style to express personal experiences and viewpoints. They paint traditional subjects such as Hindu gods but also use their brushes to document and comment on everyday life as well as national and global events.

The backstory on this exhibition is extraordinary: Mithila is a region in India, and the style of painting found there was originally practiced exclusively by women on

San Francisco Opera is once again hosting Opera in the Park, this year in celebration of the opening of its 96th season. The annual free concert has been held in Golden Gate Park since 1971, and it happens this Sunday.

The day will include arias al fresco (in the open air), featuring the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and stars from the fall season. Bring friends and family for a fantastic afternoon of performances.

It all begins in Robin Williams Meadow at 1:30 PM. Bring along food, snacks, or something to drink — if you forget to do so, not to worry, the event has items for sale. Bring only low beach chairs and/or picnic blankets so that everyone can have a chance to see the performances. After all, 20,000 people are expected to attend.

SF.Eater.com just published a wonderful guide to some of San Francisco’s best vegetarian restaurants. It includes an interactive map, making it easy to locate all of these places.

In San Francisco, according to the piece, nearly every classic dish from virtually any cuisine — including Thai, Chinese, Mexican and Southern soul food — has a vegetarian-friendly counterpart. And the options are so satisfying that you don’t have to be a staunch plant eater to have an amazing meal.

Here are five of our favorites on their list:

Indochine 508 Valencia Street Meat and dairy free Korean recipes

Shizen 370 14th Street – Modern zen vegan sushi bar and izakaya

Udupi Palace 1007 Valencia Street – South Indian cuisine all without meat

It’s the 3-day Labor Day Weekend! If you’re sticking around town, and why wouldn’t you, there’s lots to do. The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival is presenting its 2018 Free Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday (Labor Day) on the Main Post Parade Ground Lawn in the Presidio. All these performances begin at 2 PM. For more information, click here. For more ideas, check out SF.FunCheap.com. The website has posted a 2018 Labor Day Weekend Guide — spotlighting “a bucket load of awesome things to do” over the long weekend.

On the “Homes for Sale in San Francisco” front, here’s our report for this week, 8/26/18 – 9/1/18

SFGate.com posed this question the other day, and it’s a darn good one. If you were native born, but no longer live here, can you call yourself a San Franciscan? If you moved here three years ago, can you call yourself a San Franciscan? What if you moved here ten years ago?

Turns out there are no correct answers, but according to writer Michelle Robertson, City dwellers love to debate it regardless. She posted the question “When can you call yourself a San Franciscan?” on the Facebook group San Francisco Remembered, and got more than 940 comments in 24 hours.

At the end of the article Michelle quotes legendary Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, who wrote: “If I do go to heaven, I’m going to do what every San Franciscan does who goes to heaven. He

The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival is presenting its 2018 Free Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (Labor Day) on the Main Post Parade Ground Lawn in the Presidio. All these performances begin at 2 PM. For more information, click here.

Of course, it’s a three-day weekend, so you’ll need more than one activity to make the most of your days off. SF.FunCheap.com comes to the rescue with its 2018 Labor Day Weekend Guide. The website calls it a “A bucket load of awesome things to do over your long weekend.” It’s certainly that! It includes things happening throughout the Bay Area, as well as in San Francisco, so there’s bound to be something that you’re going to want to do.